A public inquiry into the death of poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko will be formally opened today.

Coroner Sir Robert Owen will suspend the current inquest into Mr Litvinenko's death before opening the inquiry, which was announced by Home Secretary Theresa May last week.

The 43-year-old, who fled to Britain in 2000, was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 while drinking tea with two Russian men, one a former KGB officer, at the Millennium Hotel in London's Grosvenor Square.

Russia ops difficult to counter

Russia's destabilisation of Ukraine has exposed "serious deficiencies" in Nato's preparedness to deal with a military threat from its former Cold War adversary, a parliamentary report has warned.

While the risk of a conventional military assault by Russia on a Nato member state remains "low", the danger of an unconventional attack using the kind of "ambiguous warfare" tactics deployed by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine is "more substantial", said the House of Commons Defence Committee.

The 28-nation alliance should urgently undertake a "radical reform" to prepare for either eventuality, including by establishing a continuous presence of Nato troops in its "vulnerable" Baltic members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and pre-positioning military equipment in the three former Soviet states, said the cross-party panel of MPs.

More reserves to join Gaza fighting

Israel has said it is calling up another 16,000 reservists, giving the military the ability to substantially widen its bloody Gaza offensive.

More than 1,360 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting began on July 8. Fifty-six Israeli soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side have lost their lives.

The reserves development comes after another day of heavy fighting, with 116 Palestinians killed yesterday, along with three Israeli soldiers.

Labour dismisses PM's tax rate talk

Labour has dismissed suggestions by David Cameron that he wants to increase the 40p tax threshold as "vague talk of jam tomorrow".

The Prime Minister insisted he would "love" to increase the trigger point at which earners start paying the higher rate and said he understood that many of those caught by it did not see themselves as fundamentally wealthy.

But Chris Leslie said two million more workers will have been dragged into the 40p rate under the Coalition.

Ex-Philip aide on child sex charges

A former aide to the Duke of Edinburgh has been accused of sexually abusing a girl in the early 1970s.

Benjamin Herman, 79, is charged with three indecent assaults against the youngster, who was aged around 12 at the time, between 1972 and 1974.

During this time Herman served as the Philip's equerry, or personal assistant.

Surge in sex offenders behind bars

A surge in the number of convicted sex offenders behind bars has forced the Government to rethink its response to the problem.

Most recent statistics show that as of March 31 there were 11,150 sentenced sex offenders in custody - a rise of 652 over 12 months, compared with an increase of 152 in the previous year.

And the number of sex offenders in prison almost doubled between 2003 and 2013, with the average sentence length increasing from 40 months in 2003 to more than 59 months in 2013.

Experts begin probe into pier blaze

Fire investigators are returning to Eastbourne Pier today after a devastating blaze ripped through the historic landmark.

The huge fire destroyed part of the 144-year-old Grade II-listed structure and sent plumes of black smoke into the sky yesterday afternoon.

It began in an area of the pier housing amusement arcade attractions and came at the height of the all-important summer tourist season for resort.

Bolt criticism would be shame - Hoy

Olympic legend Sir Chris Hoy has said it would be "a shame" if sprint superstar Usain Bolt had criticised the Commonwealth Games.

Bolt was quick to declare the Games as "awesome" yesterday, just 24 hours after he was reported to have declared them "a bit s***".

The furore blew up when the Jamaican sprinter reportedly told the Times he was not really enjoying the Games in Glasgow and that the Olympics were better.

Adults urged to monitor waistlines

Health officials are urging people to get out the tape measure and monitor their waistline after figures showed that adults with a large waist were up to five times more likely to develop diabetes.

Public Health England (PHE) has urged adults to measure and monitor their belt line in a bid to curb the growing tide of people who develop Type 2 diabetes.

New PHE analysis showed that men with a waist circumference of 40.2in (102cm) were five times more likely than those with a smaller waist to develop the condition.

Border staff unprepared for ebola

Border staff do not feel adequately prepared to deal with the possibility of people with Ebola coming to the UK and need more information about the threat, a union leader said.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond sought to reassure the public over fears that the disease could come to Britain yesterday, saying it was "most unlikely" it could spread within the UK.

He did, however, describe the outbreak as a "very serious threat", and health experts have met to discuss the possibility of people contracting the virus in West Africa and falling sick here.